Page 169 of Promise of Darkness
It covers my face and I thrash, every primal instinct demanding I fight my way to the surface. It tastes like burned magic and feels as thick in my lungs as liquid mercury. I’m drowning in it, coughing and choking on the tendrils that steal their way past my lips.
Something hauls me up. I break the surface with a gasp, and the thick liquid sluices down my face as I cough and splutter, taking in the world around me.
A soaring, cavernous roof arches into darkness above me, and the waters seemed to stretch forever. Or no, not water. I can feel it enveloping me like a gelatinous coating of slime. The taste of it lingers on my tongue, and everywhere it touches feels alive, so alive.
Pure power.
An icy, underground lake of magic that glows a faint silvery blue in patches. In the distance, a dark, shadowy island lurks in the water, but there’s no sign of anyone else. No sign of the Mother.
Sweet Maia, where am I?
The water—for want of a better word—warms around me, growing brighter as if all the light within it floods toward me. My fingertips tingle, nipples furling into tight buds as my body begins to absorb the power. It leaves me breathless, exhilaration firing along my nerves. Suddenly, I’m floating in one of those silvery blue patches.
But with the light comes darkness.
Shadows ripple through the water far below me like leviathan sensing prey, and something brushes against my foot. I jerk it toward me, heart suddenly thundering.
I’m not alone in the… waters.
I just don’t know what else is with me.
“Eris?” A brief glance around shows I’m on my own.
Well, you are in another world.
Right.
All that power flooding through me feels invigorating. I reach for it, and it blooms within me like a flower, long denied sunlight and water. A soft cry of wonder escapes me.Thisis what it feels like to have magic?
For the first time in my life, I feel as though I could conquer the world. All those years of trying—and failing—to wield my power, and here it is, mine for the taking.
I’m so wrapped up in the sensation of it that I don’t realize the danger.
The shadows swarm like a pool of ferocious fish, as if suddenly realizing what I am. I scream as they drive toward me, casting the magic wide—
Fire blooms within me, the light around me suddenly imploding.
A single thought and the world blurs, stretching me out thin and then slamming me back into my physical body.
I fall to my hands and knees in the shallows, a good forty feet from where I’d been. A glance back reveals that glowing patch of light where I’d been, the light winking out as though dozens of fireflies were snuffed out by the second. A swarm of shadows thrash and churn the water, drinking down the light until it finally winks out.
I don’t want to be here when they realize where I’ve gone.
Sloshing out of the lake, I collapse on the shore and pant. For the love of the Light, that had been close. And the magic— I lift shaking hands, surprised to see tiny flecks of light swimming through my veins, visible even through my skin.
It’s the first time I’ve felt that kind of power. My magic is erratic and unpredictable and weak. I want more.
“Well, well, well.” A laugh echoes hollowly behind me. “Look what fell into my pool. A little fish, drowning in the deeps.”
Scrambling to my feet, I reach for my knife as I spin around.
There’s nothing there.
Neither the knife, nor the owner of the voice.
Only a rocky shore piled with broken limestone pillars that look like they’ve been snapped off halfway down. Hints of ancient glyphs beckon along the stone, the same ones that adorned the circle stones of Mistmere.
Yarbra. Accult. Sylas.And more, hidden beneath a coating of moss.
